Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you're commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some turd's fantasy. So stop walkin' on and Holla Back:
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Friday, December 04, 2009

"I didn't think he'd be able to get one past me"

I've lived in NYC for five years and felt very fortunate that I had not yet experienced a sexual assault on the subway, as most of my friends have. I feel as though I am a very alert person but these perverts are just too good at being perverts and it snuck up on me.

A five foot tall man with a cap got on the W train at 59th St/Lexington during evening rush hour without any bags and carrying nothing. I was standing right by the door and I got a bad feeling about him as he got on, especially seeing the sideways glance a middle school age girl was giving him as she backed away from him and moved onto the train. I didn't think he'd be able to get one past me so I carried on, reading my book and keeping a sideways glance on him.

The car was packed and he was so sly--inching closer and closer as I silently questioned if he was too close. His face was getting all contorted and he was breathing weird but out of the corner of my eye I could see that his face and torso were facing forward, so it didn't appear he was pressing himself up against me. But I'm wondering where his body is and so I look down to see how he is turned and I see his big giant erection. This is when I flip out and start shoving him and hitting him away from me, pushing myself to the other side of him and shouting YOU FUCKING PERVERT GET THE FUCK OFF ME. I have always been prepared to be very loud and vocal if this happened to me and so I said very loudly "THIS FUCKING CREEP IS RUBBING HIMSELF UP AGAINST ME, THIS FUCKING PERVERT."

I don't think anyone flinched. The doors opened and without turning around to look at me he sheepishly crawled off the train like a fucking animal on a full moon. One woman did applaud my having vocally publicized the violation but I didn't feel I had done enough. Incredible how someone can commit a sexual assault and leave the situation with the victim feeling as if they had done something wrong. There are some very sick and diseased souls in this city and I can only hope that this experience will allow me to help another victim cope in the future. I knew about Holla Back NYC before the assault but I honestly was so shaken up that I couldn't collect my senses enough to take a photo or try to follow him and call the police. I just wonder what he did on the platform before he got on, and where he went next.